How to Verify Content & Discover Content
In the search for content, there is a need for verification, is it true or not? You can apply 5W+1H if you have studied Bahasa Indonesian subjects at school then you are familiar with this term. If you want to know more check Intel Base Knowledge Jieyaboo Here's how to verify some content
When looking at media shared online, it is helpful to be aware of some basic fact-checking principles to look for.
During most high profile news incidents, a number of photographs and videos will appear online. Amongst these are likely to be misleading, recycled images and sometimes even outright fakes. It is therefore important to ascertain the originality of the media shared. For example, has a picture been repurposed or used before? Reverse image search platforms, which we will discuss later, are extremely simple to use and can quickly help uncover previous uses of an image online.
Consider who the source of the photo or video is, what platform it was posted on and whether this may influence the veracity of the content. Was it posted on a site with poor moderation standards? Is the poster an anonymous individual or do they appear to be a real person? Have they posted about conspiracies previously? What do the responses to the post say and do they show a different side to the story?
This is an expansive topic and is an important component of the work we do at Bellingcat. But if it can be proven that an event took place at a location separate to that claimed in a video, there is a good chance we can verify the information it contains is false. A guide to geolocation can be found here.
Once a location has been established, chronolocation helps us to determine the time an event happened. If it can be proven that a video or image was taken at a time long before or after that which is claimed in a post, there is a good chance we can verify its claims as false. A guide to chronolocation can be found here.
People post media online for all kinds of reasons. Some may be genuine but others may be doing so to further a political or personal viewpoint. It is important to understand the motivation behind posts. For example, if a post has been made by someone who has a history of posting about misinformation, conspiracies or from a heavily biased viewpoint, it is wise to exercise caution and carry out further checks as to the veracity of what they are posting.
The video verification process involves answering the following questions:
- What happens in the video?
- Where did the event take place?
- When did the event occur?
- Who created the video?
- How did this happen?
The special thing about video is that you have loads of images (frames), time and sound. The audio in a video can be an important source of information!
- Watch a video frame-by-frame to see more details
- Turn off the sound when you watch the video several times; it helps you to focus
- Check on the content for example there is a face? Building? Road? Events such as disasters? War? or physical characteristics of a particular region
The image verification process involves answering the following questions:
- What happens in the image?
- Where did the event take place?
- When did the event occur?
- Who created the image?
How did this happen?
- Look at all details in the image before you start digging.
- If it looks too good to be true, there might be something fishy about it
- Check on the content for example there is a face? Building? Road? Events such as disasters? War? or physical characteristics of a particular region
The audio verification process involves answering the following questions:
- What happens in the audio?
- Where did the event take place?
- When did the event occur?
- Who created the audio?
- Good to know
- Close your eyes and use good headphones to listen carefully
- Listen carefully what and how something is being said
- Check the deepfake beware about deepfake
The source verification process involves answering the following questions:
- Who is the source?
- What does the source share and claim has happened?
- Where can you contact the source?
- When did the event occur that the source shared?
- How is the source connected to the event?
- Think about the motivation of the source. Why was this information published?
- Contact the person to get a statement, more information of the event or even the original files
- Think critically and find out more, extract what is in the source, find out and look for other sources, are there any differences? If it contains events look in satellite data, social media and others
The text verification process involves answering the following questions:
- What happens in the text?
- Where was the content published?
- When did the event occur?
- Who created the text?
- Good to know
- Never trust a screenshot of text because it is very easy to manipulate
- Ask yourself if the text is plausible, does it make any sense?
- Doing text intelligence, what is this like from AI, Plagiarism? Created by bots and others, you can do scrapping to analyze such as sentiment, latency of the post and others
Detecting and verifying synthetic media is a complex task. Fast advancements in technology make it even more challenging. Here are tips to identify AI generated media:
- Ask yourself, does it make senses what you see, hear or read?
- Find inconsistencies or artifacts in the media
- Train yourself and sharpen your senses
- Use technology-assisted tools designed for detecting synthetic content
- Seek expert analysis from specialists
- And of course, the usual verification workflow of answering the W-questions applies here:
- Where did the event take place?
- When did the event occur?
- Who created this content?
- Good to know
- Follow experts and tech journalists on the latest developements in generative AI
- Explore generative AI tools to understand their possibilities and limitations better
- https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-how-do-i-spot-a-deepfake/a-60029650
- https://www.howtoverify.info/Image
- https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2021/11/01/a-beginners-guide-to-social-media-verification/
- https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/verification-3
- https://researchguides.journalism.cuny.edu/factchecking-verification/UGC-verification
- https://firstdraftnews.org/